The impossible art of being a good guest at a Hong Kong Christmas gathering
In Hong Kong, dinner party etiquette is less about following rules and more about guessing which version of the rules your host subscribes to
I have always felt confused by early arrivals at dinner parties.
My family always show up hours before the meal is supposed to start. When I joined my mum at dinner parties hosted by a close friend, we were encouraged to arrive early.
Any guests who enter my home before the appointed hour, however, will find me in a state of barely concealed hysteria – sauce still reducing, candles unlit, playlist half-finished. You’ll be handed whatever wine I panic-bought at 7-Eleven and deposited on my sofa with the kind of fixed smile that says, “Please don’t look in the bedroom where I’ve thrown everything.”
Meanwhile, at a carefully orchestrated cocktail party, arrive early and watch the entire timeline collapse – the bartender hasn’t arrived, the host is still trying to figure out the Bluetooth speaker and those “quick-assembly” canapés are proving neither quick nor assembleable.